Call of Duty Black Ops Multiplayer Maps

Call of Duty Black Ops Maps

There are fourteen basic maps that come with the game when you buy Call of Duty Black Ops. Additionally, Treyarch has recently released the First Strike DLC pack for 1200 Microsoft Points, which gives you four more maps. The maps vary in location from the jungle, the arctic, a nuclear test site, and even the Berlin Wall. Each one has it's own unique placement of objective and strategies to learn. The maps are: Array, Cracked, Crisis, Firing Range, Grid, Hanoi, Havana, Jungle, Launch, Nuketown, Radiation, Summit, Villa, and WMD. The four First Strike maps are Berlin Wall, Discovery, Kowloon, and Stadium.

Where do objectives spawn? What strategies are most effective? Read on in this third part of the Call of Duty Black Ops Multiplayer maps guide to find out!

Array

First up is perhaps the largest map, Array. It's a winter map,

meaning everything is bright white and movement is easier to spot. Key areas to control include the central circular building and it's surroundings, which many people find is the hub of confrontation. Snipers love climbing the broadcast tower off to the wilderness side of the map, so if you hear a sniper go off, check that tower. Often you can out-snipe snipers before they can spot you. As a map with a lot of open area, anti-aircraft weaponry is essential if the enemy goes on a long enough killstreak to call in helicopters. Be prepared to move a lot; often you will spawn half a minute of running away from the action, so a LMG would make the slog intolerable.

Cracked

Cracked is a broad map with several different levels of height and angles of approach to watch out for. There are few places to snipe from, as most of the area is mid-close range. The center of the map is a strip of raised rubble and buildings which are where most of the action takes place. Domination B is squarely on top of that rubble, leaving players attempting to capture it very exposed. On one side is a three-story bombed out building with a commanding view of multiple avenues of approach, making it key territory for many campers. There is very little open airspace to drop a care package without being ambushed, so be cautious using such killstreaks. Players with fast reactions and SMGs will make short work of many of the tight corridors.

Crisis

Crisis is a cuban miss

ile base, offering a scenic beachfront, fortified underground bunkers and control rooms, and a pair of buildings. The beach is rarely used as more than a spawn point; most of the action takes place either in the tunnels or the cliffs above them, or the two-floor house to one side where many players spawn. Key places include a small tunnel carved out of the rock, which is a good ambush spot for players running from the beach to the tunnels. The tunnels themselves have many small corners to hide in, so keep an eye out. The beach is wide open to call in killstreaks, or to use packages as bait. Just watch out for players on the cliffs, who can see most of the beach at any time.

Firing Range

Firing Range is a relatively small map, one of the smaller maps in the game. Nearly every surface is made out of wood or thin metal, making bullet penetration easy and Hardened especially deadly. There is a lowered area as one spawn point, with three pathways up to the higher main area. Players love going to the higher tower in the middle of the map, but are vulnerable to a grenade if you throw it into their cubby hole. The two buildings overlooking the central area are also frequent camping spots, where you'll often find two or three members of one team watching the same window; these are easy kills. There are very few places to call in care packages without being killed, so use them wisely.

Grid

Grid is another snowy map, this one on the small end of the spectrum. A soviet comm/power station, most of the action takes place in the center of the map, between the two buildings. You can climb onto the truck to kill from an unexpected location, but you're quite exposed from both buildings. There is a back corner of the map with some tunnel-like buildings people rarely go to, which you could use to snipe from if you so desired. On the opposite side of the map is a wide wilderness area with enough cover to call in killstreaks or place hard-to-reach turrets. Not much fighting takes place back there, so it would be a great location to bait a trap with a care package.

Hanoi

Hanoi is yet another map in the Call of Duty Black Ops Multiplayer maps roster. It's perpetually night-time in Hanoi, with a roving spotlight in one courtyard, a gallows under which players can hide, and several buildings around the map with multiple access points and windows overlooking the courtyards. Always keep an eye out on the second level when you move! Every courtyard and road has a building that can watch it, and more often than not someone will be camping one of those windows. Even the outer edge of the map has a building you can crawl onto the roof of and camp from. While hiding under the gallows is a good place to ambush players, it's also a good place to be ambushed.

Havana

Havana is a map with a long road in the middle and clusters of buildings on either side. The majority of the action will take place in these buildings. The long road is almost always covered by some sniper from one of the ends, while the buildings offer a lot of cover, snort sight-lines, and perfect ranges for SMGs and Assault rifles. Due to how long and narrow the map is, a rolling thunder can cover a majority of it and net you an entire team worth of kills. Be wary when running through the buildings, as chances are there are claymores around every corner.

Jungle

Jungle is a dense map full of greenery, twisted pathways, and cliffside huts. It's easy to lose track of the enemy in the foliage and even easier to get sniped before you spot them. There is a high ridge where snipers love to camp, be aware one will be there, and probably have a claymore or motion sensor behind them. Be careful approaching them and instead throw a cooked grenade on top of them. The dense tree cover can make it hard to spot air support before it's on top of you, making it hard to shoot down. Also, on one side of the map is an open area with no boundaries. You can run outside of the map but after a short time you will explode, unlike the usual Call of Duty radiation death. This makes for an amusing time if you throw a care package slightly out of range, as enemies and allies alike try to capture it and die trying.

Launch

Similar to Cracked or Havana, Lanch has two large sprawling sides clustered with small pathways, separated by a long open road with little cover and long sight lines. To one side is a lower area with high catwalks, from which snipers love to kill players incoming to the area underneath the rocket. After several mintues of game time, a siren will go off and the rocket will begin to launch, hence the map's name. When the rocket lifts off, it's exhaust will kill anyone nearby; this makes Domination especially interesting, as Dom B is directly underneath the rocket.

Nuketown

Based off a model town for the purpose of testing a nuclear weapon, Nuketown is a tiny map colored in bright primary colors and loaded with mannequins. Combat in the map is fast and frantic, making it hard to do anything more than spawn, run a few feet, and kill or be killed. The map features several easter eggs, including out-of-map RC-XD paths, a large double rainbow, and a musical surprise. If an organized team shoots the heads off of every mannequin in and outside of the map, in the first 15 seconds of gameplay, the loudspeakers will play Sympathy for the Devil by the Rolling Stones. Many players love the map for it's fast-paced action, but others hate it whenever it comes up, especially on objective-based game modes, where capture points are often constantly exploding.

Radiation

Radiation is a map with a factory on one side, catwalks on the other, and a large open area in between them. Both sides have buttons that open and close a set of blast doors in the middle of the map, which lead to a tunnel that runs lengthwise through the map. Be aware that the blast doors will crush players caught between them when they close, making it dangerous to try to dive through a closing door. The tunnel is where B is located in Domination, so it's advised to close the doors once your team controls it and open them if the enemy does. There are many camping places on the map to watch out for, including the catwalks behind the factory with the conveyor belt, underneath the catwalks on the other side, and behind boxes in the tunnels.

Summit

Summit is another snowy map, placed at the top of a mountain, with a large central building where the majority of the action takes place. Be careful running into this building. From the south side people love camping the stairs to the left and the small entry room on the right, making a box of death if you enter without looking. From the north, people love camping on the stairs just inside to the left making them hard to shoot, or prone on the floor to the right to kill you when you expect the other way. If you survive all of that, check the control room floor and the catwalk across the way, as players will often hide there to ambush unsuspecting people.

Villa

As the name suggests, the map Villa is a rustic mansion and it's grounds. Unfortunately it suffers from two large open areas that players nearly never use, given that they're out of the way and hold no tactical advantage. Instead most combat will take place in the main building, near the fountain, or on the narrow road. Be careful and always check second-floor windows, as many players will camp such overlooks. It's possible to flank around the main building from either side, if you're careful, and ambush the entire enemy team controlling the area. Just be watchful for claymores, as most entrances may be covered.

WMD

Last of the standard maps, WMD is a boxy area with a train that runs through the border, making it noisy and hard to hear enemies. In the center is a building with commanding views of much of the rest of the map, making it an ideal place to control. Additionally, near the domination C point, a high scaffolding can be climbed up on for sniping, though like all high exposed sniping areas it's easy to be counter-sniped. The Domination B point is in the exposed central area, making it often quite hard to capture without large amounts of smoke and cover.

Call of Duty Black Ops: First Strike Map Pack

The first map pack for Call of Duty Black Ops was released on February 1st 2011 and includes five maps; four multiplayer maps and one zombies map. The four multiplayer maps are Berlin Wall, Stadium, Kowloon, and Discovery. They are a varied lot, and they're quite fun, making the 1200 microsoft point price tag much easier to swallow. Read on to see brief overviews of each of the four multiplayer maps, or skip to the end and read the fourth article in the Call of Duty Black Ops multiplayer guide; ranks, unlocks, medals, and challenges!

Berlin Wall

Berlin Wall is a map sharply divided into three sections; East, West, and a no-mans-land in the middle. On each side is a road surrounded by buildings where most of the combat will take place. The center is highlighted a deadly red on the minimap to warn you; if you enter the no-mans-land, autoturrets will kill you. The only thing that stops them is a smoke grenade! Jammers nearby will not work, nor will flashbangs or concussion grenades. You can't even shoot to destroy them. There are three pathways through the death field you can follow, but be warned; where there are no turrets, players may be lurking.

Discovery

Discovery is a large snowy map that is everything that Array isn't. Filled with buildings and tight spaces, but with several long sight-lines, it's possible to use any playstyle on the map and do well. It features a large chasm in the center of the map, bridged by several ice bridges and one real bridge. The ice bridges can be destroyed by explosives or enough gunfire, making players fall to their deaths. Be careful when roving through the map; there are multiple angles at any given location where a sniper could be watching.

Kowloon

Based off the single-player hong kong rooftops level, Kowloon is much like MW2's Favela in that it has a ton of vertical sight lines and a lot of twisting corners and windows to watch from. The map is permanently night time, making it harder to see stationary enemies and campers without an IR scope. The map features two zip lines, which offer fast travel from one side of the map to the other, at the risk of being killed, as you cannot defend yourself until you reach the other side.

Stadium

Fourth and final of the First Strike maps, Stadium is a more american map than the others. It features the outside area around a hockey ice rink, and while the rink itself is inaccessible, the outer hallways and outside sidewalks are. It has lots of close-quarters combat and tight enclosed spaces, making SMGs an ideal weapon for the area. Some of the outer buildings are also accessible, letting you have a higher view of the inner areas. Action is fast-paced, so always watch your back.

This post is part of the series: Call of Duty Black Ops Multiplayer Guide

This four-part guide to Call of Duty Black Ops multiplayer will cover everything you want to know about the game’s online component. Everything is covered, from the COD Bucks and weapons and perks, all the way to overviews of each map and challenge.